We’ve been a bit a bit behind here with the blog! This was a project completed a little while ago for an industrial client who needed a prototype crate to be custom designed with specific loading criteria and to meet certain Transport Canada requirements. Once we had all the requirements listed from the customer the project was modeled in SolidWorks to present the overall design. It only needed to go through one iteration during FEA (finite element analysis) to meet all the requirements.

This image shows the loads on the crate when strapped onto the deck of a truck (in the worst case scenario) while the cage is fully loaded. The mesh panels are not intended to be load bearing and would have made the FEA process unnecessarily complex, so the panels were omitted. However they do add some additional strength and rigidity to the design.

Once the FEA is completed, the tubing is cut to length as per the mechanical drawing, the 1/4″ thick feet and 10ga steel floor are cut on the CNC plasma table.

C-clamps and scrap 3/8″ steel plates from the CNC table make great guides. They are used to align the lid to the top of the crate before the hinges are tacked and welded in place.

Weld on hinges with built in grease zerks may be overkill for a lid, but our customers expect the best and we make sure they get it.

Loaded and ready to deliver to the customer!

Thanks for looking! If you’re interested in following the Mint Design blog, click on the bottom right of your browser on the follow button! We’ve got quite a few more projects that have already been completed or are nearly finished to be posted in the next while. Posting items to the blog have been a bit slow due to us moving! The move has allowed for more room in terms of mechanical and electrical project design, but the fab. shop will stay put for now, but there are future plans in place!